I'm downright disgusted.....

..with my so called siblings!!! Today was my older sister's funeral. It was a beautiful service and well attended by relatives, neighbours, care staff from the hospital and past work colleagues of my sister...except that myself, my eldest son and an aunt who I don't remember (my mother was one of 12) were the only relatives from "our side" of the family. A short explanation here. I am the middle one of 5..older brother and sister..younger brother and sister. When I was about 5 we were put into care. I still don't know the exact reasons...but that's another story. Elder brother and sister stayed with my father, gran and grandad. Younger brother and sister were fostered together. I was fostered separately. As young children we all saw each other fairly often. Later we drifted apart but still kept in touch. I haven't spoken to my younger sister for 20 years or so, and my younger brother for about 10 years. (yet again another story!) Anyway when my sister died I got in touch with them both. Brother wasn't interested...but my other sister did get in touch and intimated that she would attend the funeral. Well they didn't come, and they didn't send a card or flowers...nothing!! It didn't go unnoticed by several people. I am so angry with them..not only for my sister but also for her husband and son. Even if they felt that they couldn't attend surely a card or note acknowledging my sisters passing would not have gone amiss. My eldest brother wasn't there either, which surprised me, but perhaps there was an explanation for that. I didn't really like to ask at the time, not wanting to upset them any more than they were. I have been tempted to phone my sister and ask for some kind of explanation..but I've decided against that. I don't want to dignify their behaviour by responding to them.
OK..rant over.

The start was good..

The week started great. On Monday I went with eldest son and DIL to Scarborough for the day with their TARA. (Tenants and Residents Association). Thoroughly enjoyed myself....haven't been to the coast for nearly 20 years....where do the years go?!!
I arrived home to be greeted by my youngest telling me that David had phoned and would I call back. David....which David? My brother, BIL, grandson, other people named David that I know? It turned out to be my brother-in-law and I knew as soon as I saw the number that something was wrong. My sister had died. She went into hospital with a kidney infection and died of pneumonia. I am still a little dazed with the news. She hasn't had good health for a number of years (severe rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis) but no one expected this. She was 57 years old...16 months older than me. I suppose that it is a release for her knowing the pain she was in....but it doesn't make it any easier...at the moment I'm finding it hard to come to terms with it.

I'm still here...

First of all I would like to thank all you lovely people who have contacted me one way or another regarding Theo. Your comments and kind words are very much appreciated.

I've been busy. The weather has been glorious this past week so I have taken the opportunity to tidy up the garden. Cutting plants back and planting and re-planting some bulbs...especially the daffodils which had outgrown their space.

I haven't had much time for crafting.....(or blog reading....will catch up very soon hopefully!).... except a wedding card my friend asked me to make for her...and here it is. Hope you like it Anne...it will be in the post first thing in the morning.(I apologise for the quality of the picture...mirri card is not the best thing to photograph even at the best of times.)

A cream card matted and layered with dark blue, gold mirri card and then cream again. The cream layer has been punched with a Papermania punch, and small pearls added to the centre of the punch-outs. The image and sentiment is Anita's, stamped and embossed with detail gold, matted onto dark blue card and the whole thing finished with dark blue ribbon.

Next are a couple of cards I made for the Imag-e-nation forum challenges. The first one was to make a card for a child up to the age of 12. As my printer wasn't playing nice at the time I had to go with what I had. The image is a digi from Dustin Pike....used foam pads to lift it a little. I know the colouring isn't too hot..but I am practising...and hopefully will get there in the end.

This one was to make a side-step card. I've never done one of these so it was a first for me. It's made from an A4 piece of card.

Decided to go with red and black for this one. The image is a digi from Jak's blog. I didn't have the right colour card, but I did have paper. I blinged it up by spraying it with silver spray and sparkle from crafters companion...I'm loving that stuff at the moment. I didn't have a red flower either....so I used a pink one and coloured with an ink pad. I cut the centre out of black card using a punch and then sprayed the whole thing with....guess what?...yes, my favourite thing of the moment. Matted and layered the image and finished off with some black ribbon. The sentiment was free from a magazine. I didn't figure in either of the challenges but I did enjoy making the cards. Well crafting is better than housework any day. Just got to tidy up my crafting space a bit now...got some ATCs to make.